


Pay Your Debts! At the Disco

by FrankensteinIsland



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Implied/Referenced Incest, but only like in a t.A.T.u. kind of way?, except Joanna is probably still dead sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 15:43:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20910098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrankensteinIsland/pseuds/FrankensteinIsland
Summary: I watched Tristan Paredes reacting to Brendan Urie reacting to Tristan Paredes reacting to Brendan Urie and was like, "wow, imagine ur otp," and so I did. Brienne is a vocal coach-turned-YouTuber. Jaime is a problematic rockstar. They watch and make videos about each other to the point where it would honestly be ridiculous if they never actually met in person. Then again, Jaime's entire career has been pretty ridiculous.





	Pay Your Debts! At the Disco

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the end of the series of videos that inspired this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQaIg5tYocE
> 
> I don't know where I'm at in the stages of grief about the end of Game of Thrones, but I guess I'm at the point where I finally want to post the first chapter of this. I hope someone other than me enjoys the concept!

“Now, for the record,” Brienne’s eyes were fixed on the camera, serious. “I don’t condone -- really -- _anything_ Jaime Lannister has done or said publicly. Ruining Aerys’ career...” here a picture of Aerys Targaryen hiding behind huge sunglasses appeared neatly in the bottom left corner of the screen. “...Whatever is going on with him and his sister...” A picture on the right of a blond man and woman embracing a bit too passionately on stage with a caption of _Twins???_ across the top. “To be completely honest, I think he represents everything wrong with the music industry today.” Here she paused and let that sink in, before her stern expression changed to a sheepish grin. “But his voice, though.”

YouTuber BrienneOfTarth differed from most of her peers, not just in the technical expertise that she brought to her commentary, but in the overall tone of her videos. She had started out recording just for her own clients, and it was one of them who had famously persuaded her to start sharing her vocal coaching tips for a general audience. The lead singer of North Queen, Sansa Stark, had made a guest appearance on Brienne’s premiere video and spent the whole time pushing Brienne to play to the camera like other YouTubers do.

_“Pretend it’s just you and me!”_

_“If it were just you and me, I would be looking at you, not talking into a camera.”_

There had been much prodding from Sansa in that video, but by the end, Brienne had won over an audience with her passionate but educated critiques of famous pop stars. Sansa still made guest appearances now and then, but Brienne was now YouTube-famous in her own right.

But even now there was something about Brienne’s manner that was much more serious than other review videos. She never pandered and rarely even expressed personal opinions beyond artistic criticism. The way she dressed in her videos made her look like she was on her way to a job interview, which -- to be fair -- was what you were always doing on YouTube, trying to advertise yourself as a brand and make yourself the best candidate for whatever type of fame you were pursuing. But it was unusual to actually dress the part, not to at least pretend to be casual, genuine, maybe a little ditzy.

In this sense, Brienne’s introduction to her Jaime Lannister video was already stylistically unusual. For long-time viewers, it was endearing to see Brienne get even the slightest bit embarrassed. She rarely commented on artists’ lives outside of their vocal performances at all. When she had been flooded with requests to comment on the public feud between her former client’s ex Loras Tyrell and the lead singer of The Sparrows, she simply posted two separate videos dissecting each of their performances. She never once commented on their personal lives, her take on the drama, or even compared one to the other musically. They were treated like any other artists who had asked for feedback on their singing.

In this Jaime Lannister video, by contrast, it was clear she felt she had to say something in order to keep her integrity intact, but she just wanted to enjoy good music. And really, who could blame her? Even if her authoritative air made her seem older, Brienne was actually about the right age that the Lannisters’ first album _Goldcloaks_ could very well have been the soundtrack to her middle/early high school experience. It was for just about everyone. Young Jaime had been featured in many a listicle about “Teen Heartthrobs Who Caused Our Sexual Awakenings.” So Brienne of Tarth, the cool-as-a-cucumber, popular-but-private, moderately YouTube-famous vocal coach admitting that this problematic rockstar still had his appeal? That was what the gif-makers would later refer to as a “Big Mood.”

Her disclaimer given, the blonde woman slid on her headphones -- clearly good ones, but she kept the brand name out of the shot -- and a video of Jaime Lannister performing live appeared in the upper right corner, the pictures of his problematic past having vanished seconds before.

“So I would like to start with one of my favorites...”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The fact that Jaime Lannister was livestreaming at all was frankly mind-boggling. Like had he ever really been that kind of celebrity? Sure, he had popular appeal, but was he the _Let the fans watch me play video games and ask me questions like we’re all just part of a big internet slumber party_ kind of celebrity? No one would have thought so if you had asked a week ago. But then again, he was the kind of celebrity who loved subverting expectations just because he could. Put plainly, he was a bit of a troll, and he was bringing that energy to this livestream.

He had never played Fortnite before in his life and explained right off the bat that his niece had talked him into doing this whole thing, but then he had made sure to start it after her bedtime. He was terrible at the game and didn’t have funny, over-the-top reactions to being bad at the game like one might hope for. He just squinted at the screen as he died over and over again and barely responded to any viewer comments for the first hour. Then, finally:

“This is horrible. I hate this. What have you all been talking about?”

A pause. More squinting. Did he need reading glasses that he wasn’t wearing, or was he really just that perplexed?

“A lot of you left the stream because I wasn’t saying or doing anything. Told me to go fuck myself for that. Good for you. Why are the rest of you still here?....Aww, because you love me? That’s sad. Go outside. Please.” But his smile was not completely unkind here. “All right, ill-advised True Believers. What else do we normally do during livestreams?”

Another pause. Reading. Scrolling. More reading. More scrolling.

“Oh, you watch me watch videos of people insulting me? That does sound fun.” Here he put his headphones back on, and soon a video of Brienne of Tarth appeared in the corner of the screen.”

“Hello, thank you for selecting this video. I’m Brienne of Tarth, and today I’m going to be reacting to videos of one half of The Lannisters, Jaime Lannister. Now, for the record, I don’t condone -- really -- _anything_ Jaime Lannister has said or done--”

“Oh good, me neither,” Jaime said.

“I think he represents everything wrong with the music industry today--”

“Hear, hear,” Jaime raised the cup of whatever he had been nursing from an opaque red tumbler throughout his repeated Fornite failures and took a sip as Brienne added, “but his voice, though.”

“I’d like to start with one of my favorites...”

Jaime made a face when a video of himself within the video of Brienne started playing.

“You all didn’t tell me I was going to have to watch myself....Ah, never mind, you did, and I just clicked on this video without reading anything you told me about it. Sorry. Oh, she’s talking again.”

“Before I continue, I would like to address all those comments I’ve received where people have described me as looking like if Jaime Lannister got beat up--”

Here Jaime chuckled but looked directly at the camera for the first time in a while.

“Did you all say that? Shame on you. She’s a beauty.”

“--just because two people have short blond hair doesn’t mean they look alike. But more importantly, I really don’t care what you all think I look like. If you want to see someone pretty talk about music, go to Sansa Stark’s channel -- link in the description. Anyway, let’s listen a little more.”

They listened a little more. Brienne paused the video within the video within the livestream again.

“A lot of people have critiqued how Jaime Lannister does that whisper style of singing, but they don’t realize that when you put that breathiness into your voice, it’s very difficult to control pitch _and_ still put emotion into your voice like he does.”

“Yes, right,” Jaime said here. “I definitely know what I’m doing and do it on purpose.” His apparent discomfort was probably an act?

“Like here, when I don’t do that, when I sing normally and put less breath behind it--” she demonstrated with a strong alto -- “it sounds more effortful, but it’s actually easier than when I--” she sang the same line more in the style of Jaime.

“Oh, she sounds lovely actually.” He paused the video. “Does she put out music at all, I’m curious?” His eyes flitted to the comments section. “No? Those who can’t do teach or whatever they say, I guess.” He resumed the video, and Brienne picked up where they had left off.

“And a lot of female singers now do this beautifully, but it’s rare currently for a man to do the same thing and do it well. It’s rare for a man to do something as well as most women in general, but that’s a different video.” She put her headphones back on. Back on the livestream, Jaime grinned.

Soon, the video within the video had changed to an older clip of an in-studio recording. She had managed, interestingly, only to show clips from the rare times when Jaime performed solo, never including any actual videos of The Lannisters in the mix. She began by reiterating some of her previously made points, but here, after the song, there was a clip of Jaime dissecting some of the lyrics. Brienne actually stayed silent for a good minute to listen to this, and Jaime picked up his drink again.

“This guy ever shut up?” he muttered before throwing back the cup long enough for what had to be some considerable thirst-quenching. He set it down and gave the video his full attention when Brienne started talking again.

“So...with his public persona being what it is, it’s easy to forget that Jaime actually writes a lot of the Lannisters’ songs.” She was speaking slowly now, trying to work through the cognitive dissonance and formulate the words the best she could to get these conflicting ideas out. “I find this clip fascinating because it seems that maybe he -- that Jaime actually struggles with playing the role of that man who killed Aerys Targaryen’s career, and that makes its way into some of these lyrics. Because that was one moment, but it’s been inseparable from who he is since just after the Lannisters’ debut album. I can’t imagine trying to build a career with that hanging over your head. Obviously he leans into the bad boy thing, but I can imagine that would be...artistically limiting?”

During this, Jaime had not emoted but had actually held still and watched the screen carefully for the first time in perhaps the whole stream. When Brienne’s tone changed, whatever it was that had Jaime so transfixed seemed to break too.

“But also, at the end of the day, it really isn’t that hard to be a good person. You know, when people ask you if your sister cancelling half your tour stops in Italy so she could go vandalize the Vatican was justified, you could simply say no, actually. See? I just did it.” She sighed. On the stream, Jaime stopped the tumbler halfway up to his mouth so he could snort-laugh. “Oh, Jaime Lannister. Clearly the most talented Lannister. Also the most problematic.”

A quick cut on the screen within a screen.

“Anyway, thank you for watching. Once again, I’ve been Brienne of Tarth. If you enjoy my content, you can subscribe to my channel. If you enjoy my content a lot, you can click on the bell icon to receive notifications when I post. If you would like to hire me as a vocal coach, there are directions for how to do that in the description of this video. Below that, you can also comment on this video and find my other videos. Please pursue any combination of those options as you see fit, and have a great day.”

Jaime gave a wry glance at the camera.

“So serious. Maybe I’ll hire her. She seems to know her shit.” He stopped the video before the algorithm could start a new video. “That was good. I liked that. Don’t send me any more like it.”


End file.
